I wouldn’t mind that at all.
Same here.
Sandro would come quite costly and would mean United allowed to spend big on only one of RW/CM in the summer and ‘cheap out’ on the other. AKA get one world class player in one position and another far less level player in the other.
...United have a pretty solid defense in terms of GA and with José at the helm it isn’t an immediate problem nor should it be in the distant future. United lack the most in offensive creativity so I wouldn’t mind if they ‘cheaped out’ on the LB to allow them to get a better quality RW+CM which is the team’s biggest concern. With 3 inevitable signings (RW, CM, LB) to make, 1 will be a world class signing in the summer, the other will be a not so world class signing, and the last will have to be more of an intelligent, calculated budget signing.
Sandro isn’t overly special imho. He just does a bit of everything a bit better than most at his position and the fact he’s the best now-impact LB available which holds added value for any team looking to contend/improve ASAP and not have to worry about any development to reach that impact level. However, Tierney can do just about everything Sandro does but obviously at a lower level being a rawer player/prospect. I’d rather bank on him starting+further developing there than spending that sort of ‘cheap’ money on a similar sort of CM who would be expected to start for us in much more crucial position.
Way I see it, world class money signing will cost around £80M-£120M in the summer. Not so world class signing will be around £50M-£70M and the ‘cheap budget’ signing will be in the range of £20M-£40M or so. Of the latter 2 signings, 1 will likely be made this January leaving the other and the big money signing both for the Summer. Essentially if we get Sandro for £60M, it will leave us with less (cheap buy) to use up front. But if we could get Tierney for £25M (who imo is the best of both worlds in terms of being able to step in right away as first choice LB and still further develop his game and improve more), it would mean we spend the upper limit or even exceed it for the middle range money buy which would be for an attacking position - instead of say Sandro at LB - which is what we lack most; so £80M-£120M for RW or CM and £60M-£75M for the other.
All things considered, I think ^ would be best suited for United seeing what positions they need to address and which of those need to be prioritized over others (the attacking/creative ones up front). Yes Sandro is an attacking player but he doesn’t wow you like Marcelo does, he’s just a sound player all around. So is Tierney who just has to take the next step and prove it on a bigger club. And if we’re then able to spend either the upper middle limit or big spend on a quality or world class CM, Pogba would be able to play LM regularly as he did last game like he did in his time with Juventus which clearly gets the best out of him. And it would put less pressure on the LB to attack (allow Tierney to take his time and not force it upon himself to try or do anything he’s not yet capable of) since Pogba would be freed up occupying that same side of the field more. If not and say we get Sandro, likely means we use the lower money limit on a CM who wouldn’t be of high quality and most of all would mean Pogba has to play alongside Matic more often than not to compensate for lack of CM depth/quality.